Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 73

Will let his shoulders droop. Maybe if he relaxed them enough, he could learn how to be an escape artist. If there was going to be any carnival role he'd excel at, I'd have had my money on a clown.

In response to the aroma of food, his stomach grumbled a deleterious threat.

"Hey, Exx?" said Zerro.

"What's taking her so long?"

"Exx?" said Zerro, again.

A sigh. A tired response. "Yeah?"

"I heard that your name makes you become someone," said Zerro.

"Huh?"

"If you give a baby a name, they turn out just like other people with the same name. It has to happen like that. What do you think?"

"I don't care," said Exx.

"Do you remember Eva in year three?"

"Uh ha," said Exx, stealing an emotional response from Will.

"She was rude," said Zerro. "And stuck up. Then I met another Eva at the bakery who was just as rude."

"You mean the one you cut in front of in the queue?"

"Yes," said Zerro. "Her!"

"The one you called fat?"

"That's the one!"

"The one you said was the ugliest woman you ever met?"

"Yes, yes."

Were these men crazy? Will tried to get a better look at them. He squinted, but having a sack over your head tends to reduce your field of view. All he saw were speckles of light.

"I heard that a name makes power," said Zerro.

"Power for who?" said Exx.

"I don't know," said Zerro. "If you give people lots of names, do you think they get more powerful?"

"No," said Exx.

"Do you know what infinity means?"

"Yes," said Exx, barely playing along.

"If you times infinity by infinity, do you know what you get?"

"Infinity."

"No, infinity. So if I had infinity names, I'd be infinity powerful."

"You don't have infinity names. You got one. Barely."

"And if I had no names," said Zerro, "I'd be zero powerful."

Will searched for Libbi, but couldn't find her. I already mentioned the sack thing, right? He did sense her presence. It probably helped that she was still sobbing from pain. He unsuccessfully pulled at the rope around his wrists.

How were they going to get out? Strategy. Tactics. If this were an RPG, the two brothers would be at a much higher level, with strength stats far beyond his. Immersive adventure games seemed to be the better fit, relying on puzzle-solving rather than purely physical abilities which, it must be clear by now, were not Will's forte.

"That why you couldn't afford to buy mum the couch?" said Exx.

"I'm the one that picked it out."

"Who paid for it?"

"That doesn't matter," said Zerro. "I took the time, and it's the thought that counts. My thought, Exx."

"I came up with the idea. My idea, Zerro."